XXX-TRA HEAVY WARNING: The following contains graphic violence and descriptions of injuries, abuse, and gore, strong language, sexual themes, gaslighting and degrading, events of racism, rape, and suicidal thoughts, as well as rampant demon horniness... so yes, it's intended for mature audiences.

VIEWER/READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!

...

...

...

Again we're not kidding, this is gonna get pretty dark...

...

...

...

Seriously, I'm pretty sure this is gonna be MUCH worse than even Masquerade...

...

...

...

Last chance...

...

...

...

OK then... don't say we didn't warn you...

...

...

...

Hope it was worth it...

...

...

...

(There's gonna be A LOT of POV changes this chapter)

...

3rd Person POV with Millie

...

"Mmmm..." Millie stirred awake to find herself looking up at a poster of a black hole.

"Huh?!" Bolting upright she saw she was on a bed with a red with pink stars bedsheet in a room decorated with posters of galaxies, constellations, and other space maps on the walls and stuffed animals on the desk and shelves.

"Ayden's old room...?" Millie slid off the bed to survey the room as she added, "From up top?"

Before going over to the vanity mirror to see that she was visible in the reflection and commenting,

"Huh... that's weird..."

"Hmmmm... hmhmhmhm hmmmm..." A child humming echoed in the air before a little girl materialized in the chair in front of the vanity decorating a paper towel roll with poked-through tin foil on one end as a viewing hole and was scribbled on with more stars, planets, and moons in crayon and finishing it off by signing it in red crayon and wobbly letters "ALLY" on the side as she continued humming her little tune.

"Oh my word..." Millie's hands flew up to her mouth as her eyes sparkled at how cute Ayden was as a child, possibly 4 or 5; her hair was a tad bit longer but in more of its natural form with curls and springs rather than styled in straightened out, pointed locks. She was wearing a pink shirt with a big yellow star on it, light blue leggings, and bright yellow sneakers with small stars drawn on the white rubber linings underneath the dirt and dust.

"Hehe!" Younger Ayden, Ally, giggled as she held up her "telescope" before jumping up and rushing downstairs, with Millie following behind, to the kitchen where Ade was seen washing dishes, looking more or less the same as the last time she had seen her.

"Mum look!" Ally held up her small creation as she announced excitedly, "I'm gon' see all so'ts o' sta's wi'h this!"

"'Going to see all sorts of stars with this...'" Ade enunciated accentless in a scathing manner making Ally shrink as she went to sit in a chair at the table as she struggled a bit to repeat sans her accent, botching the last bit,

"Going.. to see all sorts.. of.. sta's wi'h this..."

"Hrrr..." Ade growled impatiently, making Ally shrink even more on herself and Millie gritted her teeth, about to barge in, despite knowing she most likely was still invisible to the memory when-

"Oh lay off'er Kaiya."

Another voice sounded from beside her and she jumped when another woman walked into the room; the same one from Ayden's memory earlier but wearing capris jeans with the same top and teal flip flops.

The woman ruffled Ally's hair as she went to stand by Ade who sneered while poking the woman in the chest with a soapy hand,

"You know it's Adelaide now, Eleanor."

"Hmph..." The woman huffed unamused and walked away from Ade before kneeling down by Ally as she whispered not-so-subtly from behind a hand, "My real name is Allora, it means 'the place of the swamp,' whe'e yer mum 'n I a'e from."

"Really...?!" Ally whispered excitedly and Allora nodded before explaining as Ade tried to tune them out while washing dishes more forcefully than necessary,

"We came from a small communi'y nea' the Arafura swamps back in Straya, we coul' see aaaallll so'ts o' sta's from the'e and we used ta make up the funniest names fo'em."

"Hehe!" Ally giggled before-

*KRSH!*

She and Millie jumped when Ade slammed a plate down, shattering it to pieces as she snapped,

"We came to this country to escape that life and you're over here dragging up the past?!"

But Allora wasn't all that fazed as she protested coolly,

"Oh what's the ha'm in remembe'ing the past, as long as you remembe' the good and lea'n from the bad 'nstead o' lettin' it bog ya down, right my lil' Bush Telly?"

"Right Titi!" Ally answered brightly before she shrank back down when Ade snapped while drying her hands with a towel she squeezed in emphasis,

"She needs to learn how the world works, that people are heartless and only out to use you 'nless you use'em back first..."

Millie's blood went from boiling with rage at what Ade said to freezing at what Allora said next, arguing dismissively,

"Look I know I said that that 'Den' guy was 'like a devil' but that doe'n't mean that-"

"She is a hellspawn because of him!"

Ally visibly flinched back at the accusation from her mother before Allora stepped in front of her as though to shield her as she tried to reason,

"You had one bad breakup, so what? Ya had ta've known it wa'n't gonna be that easy when we came he'e..." She kneeled down to put an arm around Ally's shoulder to hug her closer, "'Sides ya got this lil' angel from it di'n't ya?"

But Ade just narrowed her eyes and hissed,

"No..." Before her phone vibrated from the counter and she looked at the notification that popped up before asserting, "Daniel's gonna be here later, no staying out after dark..."

"K-Ade..." Allora tried to protest but she was already storming out of the room before slamming a door behind her, making Allora sigh through her nose with a hand on her hip and the other scrubbing her face tiredly.

Millie had been giving Ade a death glare the whole time, not that she could see it, before she heard a small sniffle and looked over to see that Ally's face had fallen and she started to tear up, making Millie tear up as well as she suppressed the urge to run and hug her futilely, when Allora shook her by the shoulder playfully and told her,

"Don' listen t'her ey? Yer mum's jus'," She struggled a bit to come up with something before settling for, "got some issues 'kay?"

Millie smiled a bit at the love and care Ayden's aunt was showing her, before her face changed to wondering as she pondered why Ayden hadn't mentioned her before.

Her train of thought was cut off, though, when she noticed a shadowy figure in the memory behind Allora as she asked her,

"Aye why don' we have a day jus' the two 'f us yeh?"

"Yeh!" Ally hopped out of her seat and held up her crafty telescope while cheering, "C'n we stay out 'fte' da'k ta see 'f this wo'ks?"

"What the...?" Millie noticed the shadowy figure solidifying a bit more before Allora answered with a sly grin toward the end at what she hinted at,

"Yer mum won' like us bein' out 'fte' da'k buuuut if we happen ta run inta some traffiiiiic on the way back..."

"Yeh!" Ally cheered as she grabbed Allora's hand to excitedly drag her out of the kitchen, fading into the memory past Millie before she saw the figure again, fully solid now and wearing a dark sweater with matching sweatpants tucked into some combat boots, as they turned to look at Millie before rushing off out the front door.

"Hey wait!" Millie shouted after the figure and disappeared into the scenery as the front door slammed shut behind her.

...

3rd Person POV with Moxxie

...

"Oh crumbs..." Moxxie groaned when he found himself lying face down on something hard and curved.

When he focused up, he saw he was on some kind of twisty slide at a children's playground with a large building in the near distance, the whole area looked like it had rained recently with hardly anybody around making him theorize, "I believe this is a human... school?"

"C'moon guys cut it out!" A voice cried out and Moxxie picked himself up to peek around the playground to see an 8-year-old Ally, wearing an orange blouse with a glittery ringed planet on the front, a black skirt, and mud-caked red running shoes with her wavy hair in two low pigtails with two springs of bangs framing her face, in the middle of a group of four kids who were playing keep-away with a book on astronomy.

"Ugh... bullies...." Moxxie muttered in a disgusted tone, remembering his own from childhood.

"Just give up!" A girl shouted as she pushed Ally away after throwing the book to another boy.

"You're never gonna go to space 'cause you're stuck here Dirt Ball!" One of the boys scooped up a handful of wet dirt from the grassy field and tossed it at Ally when she turned to try and catch her book, nailing her right in the face and making her fall into a puddle onto her backside.

"Oh no!" Moxxie rushed over to help but was disheartened to find out that he phased right through her and the other kids like a ghost.

"Ptoo! Ptoo!" She was trying to spit the dirt out of her mouth while trying to wipe it out of her eyes when she heard a wet squish in front of and she cried out, "No!"

Revealing that her book had been dropped into the puddle forming in the middle of a patch of mushy mud as the kids laughed and mocked,

"See ya Dirt Ball!"

"Harrhh...!" Ally growled a little as she still struggled with getting all the dirt off her face when she switched to a kneel so she could thump her fists down on her lap, shaking it anger before it faded when someone asked,

"You OK...?"

Moxxie looked over to see a younger Taylor, wearing an oversized sweater that didn't look like her style with its classy look as opposed to the ripped leggings and dirty shoes she was wearing as she stood in front of Ally with a worried expression.

After noticing the book in the puddle, she picked it up and shook off as much mud as she could before using her own sweater sleeve to soak up as much water from the pages as she could before pulling it off to hand to Ally with a kind,

"Here..."

Ally hesitated to blindly take the proffered object before using it to wipe her face and finally blinked away the dirt from her eyes to see the girl in front of her with her more-or-less-cleaned book in hand as she introduced herself before asking her excitedly,

"I'm Taylor. You wanna go to space too?"

Ally looked a little suspicious as she questioned hotly,

"What? Ya gonna say I'm neve' gonna make it the'e like them an' my mum...?"

"What no!" Taylor insisted before turning shy as she shifted in place while admitting, "My dad doesn't think I can do it either..."

Ally's face fell when she said that before she continued struggling to say,

"He thinks I should stay here and take over his-his repartation-repumation...?"

"His fame?"

"Yeah..."

Ally looked down in thought before nodding with a huff as she stood up, dropping the snobbish sweater, uncaring of the mud still on her backside and clothes to wrap an arm around Taylor as she cheered,

"Then we c'n both say 'see ya suckas' ta them aaall when we make it ta the sta's!"

Taylor was taken back for a second at Ally's boldness before smiling and wrapping her arm around her shoulder too as she declared,

"Yeah the Superstar Duo!"

Taylor raised Ally's book above her head and Ally grabbed it too as she cheered, sealing their newly-formed bond,

"Supe'sta' Duo!"

Ally jumped a bit as she remembered and introduced herself,

"Oh I'm Ally by the way!"

Taylor smiled at that and handed her her book back before the two heard cars honking in the distance and they grinned at each other before taking off, running off into the distance and fading into the background, leaving Moxxie standing there as he voiced in a wistful tone,

"She was for Taylor what Blitzø was to me...but what happened to that confidence...?" He turned around to try and find a way out when he noticed a shadowy figure on the swingset with their head down and barely swinging before he called out, "You there?"

The figure's head snapped up before they hopped off the swings and bolted off toward the school building in the distance with Moxxie calling after them,

"Wait a minute! Hey!"

Chasing them into the bushes by the Multipurpose Room as the bushes rustled behind him.

...

3rd Person POV with Via

...

"Ughhh...." Via came to lying on a bench outside a very familiar building; Griffith Observatory.

"This place again...?" She muttered as she sat up and walked toward it, noticing how all the people around her couldn't see her when she waved a hand in front of one man's face.

*PSSSHHH...*

A bus pulling up a little ways away caught her attention as some people disembarked including a blonde girl with a blue t-shirt that had a green alien waving from a UFO, white shorts, green high-top sneakers, and a black with blue stars backpack as she started to run toward the observatory before stopping and shouting,

"Come on Ally!"

"I'm goin' I'm goin'!" A 12-year-old Ally got off the bus, slightly fighting her way through the other people and stumbling off the vehicle, wearing a red t-shirt with "Get In Loser" under an image of a UFO beaming a human figure up, light blue shorts, black flats with an ankle strap, and wearing a matching black with blue stars backpack, her hair, orange-tipped at this point, was cut and styled into a mid-length straightened out shaggy wolf cut.

"Is that... Taylor...?" Via questioned as she remembered Ayden telling her about her old best friend as the two hurried to get to the line to the ticket booth.

Just as they made it to the front though, the vendor put up a "SOLD OUT" sign that made Ally whine,

"A'e ya fuckin' wi'h me?!"

"No.. now get lost Space Freaks...!" The vendor snapped, making the two girls and everyone else in line behind them groan and yell loudly.

"What?!"

"Come on!"

"Fuck this...!"

However, just as the vendor left the vendor box to enter the building with the two security guards about to escort him in, Taylor grabbed Ally's hand in hers to pull her to the side before shouting to the crowd,

"Free admission for the first 10 inside!"

All at once, the line of people turned into a mob as people started wrestling and fighting the vendor and the security guards for supposed free entry, allowing Ally and Taylor to sneak around the crowd to head into the observatory with quiet victorious exclaims,

"Yes!"

"Yeh!"

Via followed them inside, finding it weird that she could phase through the people and turnstiles like a ghost but could see herself in the reflections of the mirrors and glass and had to run after them in order to keep up.

"Tsss!" Ally got held up a bit when she stumbled and had to lean against the wall for a second, making Taylor question as she stopped,

"Woah you OK?"

"Yeh jus'," Ally straightened up with a slight wince that she tried to cover with a smile, "Need ta catch mah breath.. agh..."

Her grin slipped to a grimace as she put a hand on her side and Taylor frowned as she took her backpack off her back and asked in a tired tone,

"Where is it this time?"

"Whe'e's what?" Ally tried to play dumb and Taylor just rolled her eyes and put an arm behind her to herd her toward a blocked hall around a corner where fewer people were wandering around.

Once they were out of sight, she kneeled down to move Ally's arm and lift her shirt to reveal some dark, ugly, vaguely handgrip-shaped bruises on both sides of her hips, visible even against her dark skin with their red swollen impressions, making Taylor sigh through gritted teeth and Via gasp in horror at the implications.

"Ya gotta tell someone about this... you can't keep taking this from them..." Taylor hissed the last word as she rummaged through her backpack before pulling out a tube of half-empty bruise cream and squirting a bit onto her fingertips to apply to one bruise as Ally looked away shamefully, wincing a few times when she pressed a little too hard, before muttering,

"OK I tell someone, then what?" Ranting a bit as Taylor finished applying the cream and put a large piece of gauze and bandage over it, "I get sent to a group home in anothe' state where I'll have it ev'n wo'se off than he'e cause I at least have you 'round?"

Taylor quickly took care of the other bruise before she put her shirt back down over the bandages but stayed kneeling in front of her as she joked ruefully,

"Yeah cause whoooo'd patch you up otherwise?"

"Oh yeh 't's juuuuus' that." Ally drew out in a matching joking tone before Taylor finally stood up and took a small step toward her, the two of them now intimately close as she asked softly,

"I know it's not really your thing but.. is it alright if I hug you...?"

Via's gaze on them turned apprehensive when Taylor ghosted her hands over the bruises she helped patch up while waiting for Ally's answer as she looked down with confliction, her own hands hovering over Taylor's like she wanted to say yes but was scared to be vulnerable, even in front of a friend.

"Hey! This area's closed!" A security guard shouted, holding up a taser making them both jump as Taylor argued while she and Ally held up their hands,

"We weren't going in...!"

"Yeh...!"

"Just get outta there..." The guard harshly ordered, holstering his taser so Ally and Taylor could start walking past him, both of them barely walking away before they heard him mutter,

"Stupid dykes..."

Making Ally stomp to a stop as she hissed with her fists clenched by her side,

"Wanna say that 'gain and see what happ'ns fuckwad...!"

"Excuse me...!" The guard snaked a hand toward his taser again as Ally got right in his face to hiss in angry defensiveness,

"You hea'd me...!"

"Ally." Taylor asserted, pulling her back and making her look back at her as she spoke again, "He's not worth it..."

Clenching her mouth shut, Ally made a "fine..." face as the two of them started walking away with Taylor putting an arm around her shoulders when the guard just had to get in one more jab with,

"Lucky you got Politician Daddy's Little Girlie looking out for you, right Davies?"

"Hrgh!" Ally jerked like she was about to turn back and fight but Taylor kept her hold on Ally's shoulders as they kept walking toward the gallery exhibition with Via following, double flipping the guard off like she'd seen Ayden do many times before when-

"Huh...?"

She saw two dark shadowy figures behind the guard as he and everyone else in the memory faded away leaving the two figures running away, one of them dragging the other by the wrist but both wearing long, hooded cloaks, the one in dark blue dragging the other in medium blue.

"Hey!" Via shouted before running after them into the planetarium showroom.

...

3rd Person POV with Blitzø

...

"Ahhhhh fuuuuuck...!" Blitzø came to hanging upside down by his coat snagging on the top of a barbed wire fence in an alleyway in Hell from the familiar surroundings in his upside-down front view, however...

"Hell...? Argh! What the-?!"

When he tried to yank himself free, he just ended up switching himself around to where his face ended up smushed between the chain links, beyond which he saw the front of an apartment in the Living World lodged at the end of the alley looking incredibly out of place,

"Earth. Huh?" Before he started flipping back and forth between both views as he chanted, "Hell. Earth. Hell. Earth. Hell. Earth.Hell.Earth.Hell-AGH!"

Falling on his face for the second time that day when his coat ripped to drop him to the ground.

"So this's the inside of Fuzzball's head...?" Blitzø noted as he got back on his feet and brushed his coat off, noticing that the fence had somehow disappeared.

"Sure looks like it." Angel spoke up out of nowhere, making Blitzø whirl around and see that he was leaning against the wall behind a dumpster nearby.

"Oh great it's you..." Blitzø deadpanned making Angel flirt,

"~Awww don't tell me yer not happy ta see me Hotstuff...~"

"The name's Blitzø, the o's silent." Blitzø asserted as he stomped over to poke Angel in the chest to emphasize when he bent down at the waist to go to eye-level with him before he teased,

"~If ya say so Blitzy-Boo...~"

"Hmm...!" Blitzø huffed with an eye roll before he noticed the familiar-looking Glock in his hand and questioned, "Where'd you get that?"

"Landed on it and nearly got it lodged up my ass..." Angel snarked teasingly as he twirled it around playfully on his finger by the trigger hole, "Was the only thing I could touch around here so I figured it's gotta be important somehow..."

"Give it..." Blitzø snatched it out of his grip, noting that the "A.A.A" initials he knew Ayden had gotten done on the bottom of the gun handle were absent, before remarking, "Where's everyone else?"

"Don't know, came to and it's just you nearby..." Angel answered as he looked back to the other end of the alley, "Tried goin' the other way but somehow it just led back here..."

"So the house is our only option?"

"Looks like it..."

They both made their way up to the apartment and entered, only to find themselves in what looked like a small waiting or break room with a mini scratch-riddled table with one seat and, on top of the table, some baggies of Ayden's old mild catnip gummies, a face-down red journal with a scribbled-over cover, clumps of cut or yanked out hair, and rusted and dusty weapons, an outline in the dust where the Glock looked to have been at some point as well as a door on the other side of the room.

"What kinda fucked up horror show is this...?" Angel noted, sounding as thoroughly creeped out as they both felt looking around the break room.

Blitzø picked up one of the baggies of gummies, recognizing the logo on the bag, as he muttered,

"I've got some ideas..."

"Ya feel like sharin'...?" Angel spoke in a tone that trod the line of flirting and interrogating in a way only he could pull off.

"Not really..." Blitzø looked back at Angel to give him a deadpan look that he returned with a smirk before it changed to a questioning look that wasn't directed at him but at something behind him.

When Blitzø looked back, he saw that there were two washed-out colored figures, one both of them recognized as a younger Ayden with her cat ears down and tail wrapped around her legs in her curled-up sitting position on the floor in front of the other door and the other was only recognized by Blitzø when she spoke,

"~Hey there lil' kitten...~"

"Hannah...!" Blitzø hissed and Angel recognized the name as well as he muttered through gritted teeth,

"That sadistic skank..."

"~What's gotcha so down...~" The Hannah memory kept talking despite Angel taking a swing at her form only for his fists to phase through as Memory Ally started sobbing out, burying her face in her knees,

"She's gone... an' it's all my fault...! I don't w-wanna remembe' what happened..."

"~Y'knooooow...~ Me and my friends can help with that..." Hannah kneeled in front of her and gripped her chin to make her look up as she spoke coquettishly, "You won't have to think about anything ~ever again~ with us..."

Ayden looked like she wanted to say no when Hannah fondly brushed her cheek as she spoke in a faux-worried tone,

"You must be soooo tired of going on ~allllll alooooone...~"

And Ayden seemed to melt a little at the affectionate gesture, even if the true meaning was obvious to the two onlookers, who were too engrossed in how the interaction was hitting close to home for them both.

Memory Ally finally relented by nodding and Hannah looked all too thrilled to pick her up from the floor and carry her in the direction of the door.

"No wait!" Angel once again tried to stop the memory from playing out but was thwarted again as they phased through his grab attempt and the door, making him bolt to open it up with Blitzø following right behind him, the two of them chorusing,

"Whaaaaat the fuuuuuck...!"

On the other side of the door, there was a long, endless-looking hallway full of doors on both sides, the few light fixtures in the hall were flickering or completely out, creating an ambiance of eeriness and unsettling terror, and, if that wasn't creepy enough, there was dark liquid dripping from the roof, streaking down the wallpaper peeling walls, and puddling on the floor as a metallic smell lingered in the air along with the tang of drugs and smokables and the acrid sharpness of alcohol that wafted all around them.

"Well this just took an extra extra dark turn." Blitzø commented unamused.

"AHH!"

They both jumped when they heard Ayden's scream coming from a door that had swung open on its own and they both rushed over to see the room was empty aside from human child Ally curled up on her side underneath a blanket shaking uncontrollably.

*TCH!*

"Hey!"

"Aye!"

The door shut in front of them before another scream sounded as another door swung open making them run over to it only to repeat the same process as they saw Ayden in the same curled-up position with clothes torn off but with blood dotting the floor around her before the door slammed in Angel and Blitzø's faces to keep them out and they started rushing forward.

Every door was a peek into the abuse Ally and eventually Ayden had been subjected to throughout her entire life in both the Living World and Hell, the two forms interchangeably shown in each memory room in the aftermaths of each... "session"...

Eventually, Angel and Blitzø stopped looking through each door and just focused on trying to get to the other side of the hall, the both of them running even as the screams and cries kept going around them with doors flinging open and shut sporadically.

...

3rd Person POV with Millie

...

"HAH-!" Millie burst through the front door-

"HUH?!"

Only to wind up back in the apartment in the upstairs hallway and the time had changed to night.

"What the-?!"

But she barely had a second to process before she heard a terrified wail coming from one of the rooms, cut off with a slap and a muffled cry,

"AHH-!"

*TCH!*

"-MPH!"

Before hurried footsteps and a freaky phase-through from Allora made Millie watch as Allora threw open a door, had a split-second of stunned shock, before it switched to rage as she stormed in yelling,

"YOU FUCKE'!"

Before the sounds of a fight were heard from Millie as she rushed over to the open door in time for an 8-year-old Ally to stumble backward out of the room and fall on her backside with her back against the opposite wall as tears streamed down her face over her cheek which was swollen and red from a clear strike.

She was wearing a blue tank top with a rocket ship that was barely visible from the way she was tightly hugging herself and her grey denim shorts were pulled slightly down from on her hips, enraging Millie at what was being alluded to.

"Ayden!" Millie exclaimed, kneeling down to try and help her, only to growl frustrated when she was reminded that she couldn't interact with the memory... only watch it play out...

"GET THE FUCK OUT!" Allora yelled as she wrenched a beaten-up and intoxicated Daniel out of the room, making sure to steer him clear of where Ally was still sitting on the floor and shoved him in the direction of the stairs where he barely managed to catch himself as he shouted back drunkenly,

"'T'sss not my fault she-she dresses like she's beggin' for it!"

"OUT!" Allora reinforced with a raised fist and Daniel scoffed while erratically waving a hand dismissively and started clumsily making his way down the stairs, his unbuckled belt still swinging around, when the front door opened to reveal Ade home from work from the way she was dressed in a pantsuit and saw his state to exclaim,

"Baby what happened?!"

About to fuss over him when he slapped her hands away to yell,

"I'm outta h-here! C-Call me when you *hic* kick that-that bitch out!"

Making it out the door to slam it behind him so Ade could huff as she tossed her jacket and purse onto the table before stomping up the stairs where Allora was kneeling down and comforting Ally with a hug and reassurances before yelling,

"What the Hell did you do?!"

"That pe've't was 'bout ta attack Ally!" Allora stood up to go face to face with Ade as she retorted uncaringly,

"Well what did she do? Did she lead him on? Did she say something suggestive?"

"She's eight yea's old! She doe'n't even know what that means!"

As the two adults began full-on yelling, Millie's enraged attention soon shifted to worry as she noticed Ally curling in on herself with her hands fisting in her hair over her ears like she's seen her do a couple of times whenever she got scared or stressed with that hauntingly familiar expressionless look taking over her face.

"Nononono... don't detach...!" Millie urged kneeling beside her, wanting nothing more than to hug and reassure her to bring her out of her head or better yet pull her out of the memory altogether but tears welled in her eyes when she was reminded once again she could do nothing but watch.

"O' maybe you need ta stop bringin' 'round slagge's who really don't give shite 'bout you jus' ta validate yer insane belief that jus' cause this one guy ya thought was 'the one' bailed then no one ca'es!" Allora yelled back before tightening her fists at her sides and uttering before declaring, "That's it... That's it!" Turning to Ally to tell her, snapping her out of her daze, "Ally, go pack yer pack we''e leavin'."

"Like Hell she is!" Ade yelled, indignantly trying to shove past her sister to get to Ally, "You feel free to move as faaaar as possible but she's my baby and she stays with me!"

But Allora was unwavering in her stance as she argued back fiercely,

"I c'n look past you blamin' he' fer what happ'ned wi'h Den, but I won't let you use he' jus' so you c'n feel bette' 'bout throwin' yer own life away!"

Allora harshly shoved Ade away, making her fall into another open room before she grabbed Ally's hand and pulled her to her feet so the two of them could run down the stairs and out the door while Ade screamed after them,

"You're gonna regret this Allora! DO YOU HEAR ME?! YOU'LL REGRET THIS!"

Millie managed to keep up with Allora and Ally as they made it to her car, Allora making sure Ally was buckled up in the back, Millie sitting on the other side somehow, before hurrying to the driver's seat as she started the car and assured Ally,

"It's gonna be OK." Stroking a hair through her fluffy hair in a stressed motion as she started reciting while pulling out of the driveway, "We'll figu'e somethin' out... we'll figu'e somethin' out... we'll figu'e somethin' out..."

"Titi...?"

She stopped backing out to look back at Ally as she asked in a tiny voice,

"Is it my fault...?"

"Wh't?!" Allora turned back to fully face Ally as she was about to protest when Ally pointed behind her with a scared,

"Look out!"

Revealing that a car was careening toward them as Allora shouted,

"OH SHITE!"

*SKREEEEE!*

"AHH!"

*KRSH!*

...

"Ugghh...." Millie rubbed her head, wondering how she was even able to feel the crash impact when she noticed Ally, somehow untouched in the second row as she began to come to.

"Titi...?" Ally questioned groggily before she, and Millie, caught sight of her aunt, her face buried in the deployed airbag but unmoving as blood was streaked across the device and dripped down from where the smashing impact pretty much crushed the car's and her left side but Ally managed to wrestle herself free of the seatbelt to climb up front and start shaking Allora's shoulder, making glass shake free of her hair as she urged, "Titi? Titi! Wake up!"

She was about to keep shaking her when the back door was opened and a hand grabbed Ally's wrist and started pulling her out even as she fought against it.

"No! NOOOO! TITI!" Ally futilely reached out for her aunt one last time right before the engine flamed up and engulfed the car with a steady blaze that completely obscured and consumed Allora's body.

"Stop that...!" The person dragging Ayden away was revealed to be Ade, having followed them and witnessed the crash, the driver long gone, and she wrenched Ally to face her before grabbing her face with her other hand to hiss, making her face the crash before facing her again, "This is on you...! You shouldn't have tried to leave... You're meant to stay here... with me..." Tightening her grip on her face as she snapped, "Got it...!"

And Ally could only look over at the fire in her peripheral vision as the lights in her eyes dimmed so she could blankly nod, her state of mind already going back towards dissociation, to not fight back anymore, as Ade smirked,

"Good... now let's go home..."

Dragging Ally by the wrist as she kept her empty gaze on the ground the whole time before the two of them vanished, leaving the figure that Millie had been chasing before in their place.

"Who are you?!" Millie got into a fight-ready stance but the figure remained unfazed and instead beckoned her to follow them through the door of the crashed car as they disappeared into the flames.

"Hrrrrr...." Millie growled in indecision before steeling herself and jumping through the flames to follow the mysterious figure.

...

3rd Person POV with Angel and Blitzø

...

"RAH!" Angel and Blitzø burst through the door having finally reached the end of the hall, Ayden's screams and injury-ridden forms seared into their minds before they found themselves in-

"The warehouse we all met in...?" Blitzø uttered as he recognized the surroundings.

"MROW!"

The two of them jolted when they heard the yowl before they turned to see that the memory playing out in front of them was,

"The day we found her..." Blitzø uttered as they watched the familiar "inadvertent taking down of the targets because of the laser pen before the trapping and cutting off of the chain on Ayden's wrist shackle (which Blitzø had forgotten she'd ever even had at one point) and leaving, the last of the memory being Ayden finding the business card left behind and grabbing the supplies to go."

"Damn!" Angel butted in, making Blitzø grimace as he remembered he was there too before he continued with, "You guys' first meeting was messed up."

"You wanna talk messed up?" Blitzø snarked as he started looking through and behind crates to try and find the exit, "We met her dad and he only had her to try and take her powers and use them/her to take over the world-sssss..."

"Yeesh and I thought my old man was the ultimate piece of shit..." Angel scowled as he joined in searching for a way out.

"Yeah, well join the... club...?" Blitzø started to snark back when he noticed a small shadowy figure scuttling in between the crates he was in front of and yelled, "Hey, hold it dipshit!"

Whipping out the Glock he fired right in front of the figure stopping them from running out into the open and herding them back toward the crates.

*PEW!*

"MRE!"

Only for them both to freeze when they heard the cat-like yowl and Blitzø automatically aimed the gun down as he and Angel got closer to where the figure was cornered with the latter muttering in disbelief,

"It can't be..."

"Oh my Satan..." Blitzø breathed as the figure peeked out to reveal it was Ayden, sort of...; she looked 5 or 6 age-wise, her unpierced cat ears were on her head but her hair was orange tipped like it is in her human form and was a long, curly, yet also somehow pointy, mass that nearly engulfed her small, unscarred form, her right leg and left arm were human while her left leg and right arm were cat-like, and she was wearing a long oversized red shirt that went down to her knees to hardly reveal the black shorts underneath and no shoes, her face was entirely cat-like with her whiskers and freckles present but one of her pupils was human-like, making her a hodgepodge of her human and demon cat forms.

"Hey there... Mini A?" Blitzø tried to speak gently with his hands raised but he still had the Glock in his hand, scaring her to where she hid herself further behind the crate while making a nervous sound,

"Nnnn..."

Making Angel upside-smack his head to scold,

"Knock it off, you're scarin' her...!"

"How do you know she's not afraid of spiders huh...?!" Blitzø retorted heatedly.

"Mmmm...!" Mini A whimpered even more as she kept trying to wedge herself further between the crates but couldn't get any further.

"Nononono...! It's OK...!" Angel tried to reach out to her with multiple arms but she just curled in on herself while crying a little, making him retreat back a second as he and Blitzø were at a loss for what to do.

After sitting back on his heels, Angel had a small look of realization before he just held one hand out and started to sing softly,

♫ I always thought I might be bad

Now I'm sure that it's truuue

'cause I think you're so good

And I'm nothing like you... ♫

Mini A looked at Angel hopefully while Blitzø watched the whole thing with a look of confused disbelief as he continued singing,

♫ Look at you go

I just adore you

I wish that I kneeew

What makes you think I'm so speeecial... ♫

She started slowly inching her way out from between the crates until Angel was able to fully pick her up from under her arms as he finished singing,

♫ If I could begin to do

Something that does right by you

I would do about anything

I would even learn how to looove... ♫

Mini A looked like she had fully calmed down as she rested her head on Angel's shoulder while hugging him around his neck and wrapping her legs around his waist making Blitzø question incredulously,

"How the fuck did you know to do that...? I never woulda thought of that..."

"Maybe you don't know her as well as ya think ya do then..." Angel huffed before Mini A hugged him tighter and he returned the hold as he walked away to try and find the way out with Blitzø being left behind as he muttered,

"I guess I don't..."

Before following behind as they saw the entrance of the warehouse swing open and Mini A pointed to it while making little noises to signal that she wanted them to go there,

"Mm! Mm! MMM!"

"Lead the way, Small Fry." Angel told Mini A and she smiled shyly as he walked off following her direction, leaving Blitzø to linger behind with a dejected expression before following as well.

...

3rd Person POV with Via

...

"Urgh!" Via pushed through the swinging doors, expecting to be in a planetarium showroom, but instead found herself back outside, but it was dark and there was no sign of any people around.

"What the...?"

"C'moooon! Hurry up!"

"Ah...!" Via yelped a little when Taylor and newly-13-year-old Ally phased right through her, the former wearing a black t-shirt with blue stars and a long-sleeved green shirt underneath, white shorts with green leggings underneath while wearing a pair of familiar-looking gold hoop earrings while the latter was wearing a glittery red dress with black flats.

They were both holding ice cream cones, Taylor with strawberry and pistachio and Ally with peanut butter and chocolate chunk, before Taylor pulled Ally over as she took a newer-looking model Polaroid camera seemingly from her back pocket and held it in front of them while announcing,

"Come on, get over here Ally! We need a pic to remember this!"

"You know I don' like cam'ras!" Ally whined playfully before Taylor pulled her in with a hand on her waist as she claimed,

"This is just for us."

"Prom'se?"

"Promise..."

Keeping a hold on her waist as she raised the camera above them and clicked the timer button,

*Beep...*

"Aaaand razzleberry!" Taylor cheered.

*Beep.*

"'T's s'posed ta be 'cheese' hehe!" Ally giggled.

*Beeeeeep!*

"Mine's funnier and you know it haha!"

*BVVVV!*

*CLICK*

*Bzzzzz...*

The photo was spit out and Taylor waved it around as it developed before holding it between the two of them as she commented cheerfully,

"That's a keeper!"

"Ya say that 'bout ev'ry photo ya take of us." Ally bumped her side playfully before reaching behind her and bringing out a black marker to start doodling on the photo outline as Taylor retorted with a giggle,

"Cause it's true!"

Ally playfully rolled her eyes before announcing, "The'e!"

Revealing she doodled two people in space suits and a shooting star on the star-patterned photo outline.

"Nice!" Taylor cheered as she tucked a choppy strand of hair behind her ear jingling one of her gold earrings, the ones Via's seen on Ayden, when she heard a rustling in the bushes close by-

*Tsh...!* *Tsh...!*

"HAAAAAH!" A figure covered in leaves and branches emerged with a gravelly-sounding gasp from the bushes.

"Agh!" Via yelped and stumbled back a bit before the leaves and twigs were shaken off to reveal Moxxie standing there as he breathed a sigh of relief and she deadpanned,

"Oh crumbs...!"

"Oh..."

Before he realized who was in front of him and yelped while bowing deeply, "Oh Princess!"

"Of course I get stuck with the old man..." Via muttered under her breath before looking around and asking him, "Where's everyone else?"

"I-I don't know, I woke up and it was just me," He explained before gesturing to in front of him, "I went through a memory following this shadowy person and it led me here."

"Only one? I followed two." Via brought up after recognizing the familiar scenario and they looked around as the memory of Taylor attaching her gold earrings to Ayden's ears in the background continued, "I don't see any of them now..."

"Maybe they're trying to guide us out of here?" Moxxie suggested hopefully before Via theorized darkly,

"Or maybe they're trying to trap us..."

"Oof!"

*KRCK!*

They both turned back to the memory as Taylor was shoved to the ground, her camera's lens shattering and ice cream cone splattering when they hit the ground, by a black-haired girl in a poison green and dark gray color palette as she snapped,

"Watch it bitch!"

About to kick the camera, and Taylor as she was scrambling back to her feet, when Ally dropped her cone to step in front to protect her and snap,

"Leave her alone Bree!"

"Why don't you make me, Loser?" Bree grabbed and held Ally up her toes by the front of her dress with one hand while she shoved Taylor back to the ground using her foot making her yelp,

"Ah!"

"Stop it!" Ally shouted before screaming, "RAH!"

*FWWOOSH!*

Ally pushed a hand out to shove Bree away but a burst of flames shot out from her hand instead, completely burning her to a crisp as her smoldering body dropped to the ground.

When she realized what she'd done, she screamed in panic while grabbing her head,

"AHHHHH!"

The fires flared up with her emotions as she was soon surrounded by fiery streaks as her physical form hovered in the air above a glowing red pentagram in the ground and started morphing, her screams escalating in agony as her legs broke to shift to digitigrade ones, her cat-like paws shredded through her flats, her tears started glowing and burning as they streaked through the trio of whiskers that sprouted up from each cheek, her hands turned to claw-tipped paws as one gripped through the front of her dress and dug three scratches into her chest, and a bifurcated tail sprouted through the back of her dress to wave around erratically in the air.

"Oh man..." Via spoke up from where she was covering her mouth with her hands at the horror she was watching while Moxxie breathed in shock,

"This was her first transformation...?"

"ALLY!"

Their and Ally's attention was caught when they saw Taylor through the smoke and fire streaks, fighting past the heated whirlwinds to reach out for her with both hands determinedly.

"NO! TAYLOR!" Ally cried out, her fear only making the flames burn even hotter and the winds surge even faster.

"ALLYYYY!" The hands that were reaching out to her started disintegrating, crumbling her hands and making their way past her wrists, up her arms, and to the rest of her body as she was incinerated by the flames and reduced to a flurry of ashes within seconds...

"AAAHHHHH!" Ally wailed as she curled in on herself and started to disassociate from her morphing body, somewhat working on making her powers recede as the winds slowed, the heat dissipated into the night air, and Ally's body was dropped to the scorched ground, still in a daze.

When she started coming back, she slowly pushed herself to her paws with one on her forehead. She tried to clear her vision before it focused on the pile of ashes that used to be her friend less than a few feet away.

"NO...!" Ally scrambled to grasp at the ashes as if hoping time would reverse and they would reform but her voice tore as the full extent of what just happened hit her, "N-Noo-oo..."

She stayed kneeling with her forehead on the ground and her arms in front of her gripping the ashes and burnt grass as she sobbed brokenly into the remains of her friend.

Moxxie and Via were still nearby, watching the heartbreaking memory play out, before they all heard crunching footsteps approach her, making Ally sluggishly lift her head back up.

*Krsh...!* *Krsh...!* *Krsh...!*

"Mum...?" Ally whispered as it was revealed that Ade was standing there with a disgusted grimace at the scene in front of her.

As if by instinct, Ally's demon cat form slowly retreated back and she appeared human again, her clothes still shredded and burnt, as Ade hissed,

"What have you done...?"

*Tch...!* *Tch...!*

"Wh-?!"

"Hey!"

Via and Moxxie were grabbed by the wrists by the shadowy figures they had followed before as they were unexpectedly zoomed past Ayden's memories of being trapped at home by Ade, enduring her abuses, before escaping, getting caught and held by DHORKS as they experimented on her, and heading toward more memories saturated in red...

...

3rd Person POV with Millie

...

As soon as Millie emerged from the fires of the car crash, she found herself back in Hell as she muttered while looking around,

"Aww fuck! Where'd that slippery lil' fucker go?"

"C'mon c'mon!"

Millie's attention was caught when two figures ran past her and she only hesitated for a second before following them as their forms solidified more revealing Ayden and-

"Taylor?" Millie questioned, having heard about Ayden's former human best friend a few times but never hearing about this...

Taylor had been turned into an otter-like Sinner, most likely due to her playful nature in life, her pixie cut hair became blue flames tying her to how she died by hellfire, and was wearing an oversized band shirt that hung off both shoulders revealing bright green tank top straps while she wore white short shorts that had a hole in the back for her tail to go through, a small blue flame lit at the end that glowed brighter whenever her tail swung around and her star-shaped star sapphire pendant was unchanged and swinging around on its silver chain around her neck.

Ayden was in her demon cat form, still going by Ally, but almost all of her scars were gone as she pulled Taylor along while Exorcists were diving-bombing and flying all around them, skewering and killing any Sinner in range revealing that this memory was taking place during an Extermination Day.

"Quick in he'e...!" Ally pulled Taylor into a dead-end alley between two shops with a brick wall at the end and tried a door to one of them, finding it locked, and making her growl in worried frustration,

"Hrrr...!"

Before Taylor put a small paw over hers and told her,

"Hey don't worry, I got this..."

Bringing her tail up to use it like a mini blowtorch, melting the doorknob to let them both into the shop, one with furniture and housewares with signs announcing they were stolen from other Sinners' houses.

"We shoul' be safe he'e.... fer now..." Ally plopped herself down in a pile of clothes in front of a rack of them while Taylor dropped herself onto a beanbag chair that had a cloud of white powder poof out when she did so she suppressed her coughs into her elbow before sputtering out while gesturing outside,

"Yeah from whatever the fuck this's..."

Millie had managed to keep up with them, wondering the whole way what more Ayden was hiding about her past and feeling simultaneously relieved she was finally getting some answers but also guilty that she had to poke around in her head for them, when she heard twin shouts of surprise,

"AHH!"

"URH!"

Before two figures were thrown out from a wardrobe, making Millie ready herself for a fight before-

"Millie!"

"Moxx!"

The two imps embraced each other tightly before kissing deeply to where Via held a hand to the side of her face to block her view as she groaned,

"Ugh... Can you both not...?"

"Sorry Sweetie," Millie apologized as she wrapped Moxxie's arm around her shoulders while looking at her sincerely, "I'm just glad to see y'all are OK..." Her face fell a bit as she looked around while adding, "It's crazy in here..."

"That's one word for it..." Via muttered as she watched the memory of Ally and Taylor making up a complicated secret handshake to distract themselves from the violent carnage going on outside.

"Any sign of the others?" Moxxie was asking Millie behind Via,

"Just you two I've managed to find..."

Their conversation faded into the background as Via watched Taylor scoot over on the beanbag chair and pat the open space to beckon Ally over, her only hesitating a few seconds before hesitantly settling in next to her.

Via's expression turned more uneasy again when Taylor wrapped an arm around Ally's shoulders to hug her close while her tail gently looped around hers.

Ally stiffened again at the contact at first but melted into it and reciprocated the effort to comfort her by curling her tail around hers and reaching a paw up to gently hold Taylor's shoulder that she took to intertwine her digits with hers.

"Princess?"

"Hmm?"

Moxxie's question brought her out of her thoughts as she hummed in response before he asked again,

"I don't suppose you know a way out of here...?"

"Mindscapes aren't really covered in my dad's lessons..." Via answered before adding moodily, "So your guess's as good as mine here..."

Walking away, past Ally and Taylor, to question sulkily,

"Aren't we supposed to be looking for something that doesn't belong in Ayden's head? Maybe those ghosts are it."

"I don't think so," Millie disagreed before reasoning, "But something is off about them. They keep leadin' us to different places, different memories..."

"You think they're trying to show us specific things?" Moxxie asked.

"Or maybe they want us to avoid specific things and we keep stumblin' in where they don't want us..."

"Can't imagine what they'd want us to avoid in here..." Via mumbled as she watched Ally and Taylor resting on the bean bag chair, the former getting sleepy from the way her eyes were drooping and her head lolled against Taylor's.

At the hint of jealousy in her voice, Millie and Moxxie looked at each other before looking at Via so the former could ask,

"You doin' alright...?"

"I just don't get why she couldn't tell me most of this herself," Via admitted, "I mean yeah she gave me the basics back in L.A. but still... "

"I mean, if it makes you feel any better, she hasn't told us a lot of specifics about her life either...?" Moxxie tried to console her but Via just scoffed with an eye roll,

"It doesn't..." Leaning against a wall as she watched Taylor readjust her seating on the beanbag chair to hold Ally better, making a small plume of dust rise up again as she questioned in a hurt tone, "Why...? Why would she hide all this pain from everyone... even me? Does she not trust me...?"

"No Sweetie I-" Millie stepped forward about to protest when they all froze when Ally sneezed,

"ACHOOO!"

But not only was it insanely loud, but a small spout of fire came out of her nose and melted right through the ceiling while the shockwave cracked all the windows of the store, allowing an Exorcist with Maleficent-like horns and a barbed spear on the street who had just finished skewering a mole-like Sinner see them through the shattered glass and smile wickedly.

"Oh no..." Millie uttered as she realized what was about to happen.

*KRSH!*

The Exorcist rammed through the windows and landed inside the store with her spear readied with Ally and Taylor as her new targets.

"Run!" Ayden pulled Taylor to her feet and they ran back toward the door where they came in from with Millie, Moxxie, and a begrudging Via following them.

The trio managed to keep up as Ally and Taylor made it to the alley and were running away with Ally leading the way when-

*SHING!*

*SCHLL!*

"AGH!" Ayden stumbled, grabbing onto her ear when a swipe from a barbed spear nicked a chunk out of it, making her glowing blood spill through her digits and the pain overwhelmed her senses.

"Ally!" Taylor cried out as she instinctively whipped her tail around to hit the Exorcist back before wrapping her arm around her shoulders to support her as she blinked hazily from the pain going through her head.

"No...!" Taylor uttered fearfully as she realized they were pinned; a dead end on one side and an Exorcist blocking their way out, the store no longer being a safe option.

*FWOO-FWSH!*

The Exorcist beat her wings to lift her back onto her feet when she saw the two of them hugging each other, Taylor practically pressing her lips to the side of Ayden's head as she held her close, and sneered,

"Your love is abominous and doesn't deserve to continue!"

Before surging forward with her spear in hand,

"HRGH!"

In a split-second decision, Taylor pushed Ally to the side-

*SCHLL!*

"AGH!"

So the tip of the barbed spear would pierce through her chest instead of Ally's, barely missing her necklace.

"NO!" Ally screamed from where she was half-lying on the ground before the Exorcist ripped the spear out of Taylor's chest, letting her body fall to the ground before it was revealed that her pendant had gotten tangled up in the barbs but was undamaged.

After untangling the pendant, she maneuvered it over her own head as she spat at Ally as she stayed panting on the ground with her gaze on Taylor's body,

"This belongs in Heaven unlike you heathens...!"

She raised her spear, poised to strike down on her while Ally was panting angrily through gritted teeth,

"Hrrr... Hrrr... NOO!"

Before she screamed while throwing out a paw, a blast of fire spewing out, not powerful enough to completely burn the Exorcist to ashes but enough to knock her back, nearly unconscious.

Ally stayed slightly sitting up with her paw outstretched as she panted in exhaustion from the power use when she saw Taylor's body and scrambled to crawl over.

"Nononono...NONONOOO!!!" Ally cried out as she hugged Taylor's body close, crying into her shoulder as the fires in her hair and tail extinguished, signaling her final death, before she saw the Exorcist starting to regain consciousness and shouted through gritted teeth,

"HRRR! RRR! AGH!"

Throwing her paw out, she tried to summon more flames but nothing came out and, after trying a few more times to no avail, she realized she was running out of time as the Exorcist was slowly starting to come to.

With a frustrated cry, Ally bent down to give Taylor's body one last hug before running, making sure to jump on the Exorcist's torso on her run, only enraging her even further as she grabbed her spear and began her hunt.

As Ally was chased off into the distance, the onlooker trio was met with the four figures they'd all been chasing causing Millie to shout,

"Hey stop right there! No more runnin'!"

But one figure went over to the alley wall and pulled a brick out of the wall a few inches causing the manhole cover the three of them were standing on to open abruptly from under their feet, dropping them into the abyss with a chorus of screams,

"AHHHH!"

...

3rd Person POV with Angel and Blitzø

...

As soon as they made it out of the warehouse, they were just led into another memory; this one taking place in Angel's dressing room at a club as another younger Memory Ayden appeared, peeking out the door.

"Wait we just went backwards...!" Angel noted as he recognized the younger form of Ayden before she met I.M.P. in the dressing room

"Reeeeeaallly how can ya tell?" Blitzø drew out sarcastically but was secretly intrigued by what this memory had to offer as he asked, "You used to take her to work or something?"

"Yeah she'd come with a couple'a times, I thought this was the way out?" Angel answered hurriedly before asking Mini A, who just pointed urgently at the memory with more little noises,

"Mmm! MM!"

Making him huff impatiently before settling to watching the memory play out with Blitzø.

Angel smiled ruefully when he saw how Ayden was peeking through the cracked open door to watch him perform on stage in the distance before stepping back and trying to copy his dance moves sans the pole.

"Heh..." Blitzø chuckled a bit when Ayden started putting her own spin on Angel's moves and recognized some of them from her fighting style.

*Grrrrr....!*

Before her stomach growled making her wince and hunch over a bit from the pain and she looked conflicted for a second on whether she should wait for Angel to finish up or risk sneaking out to grab something to eat.

*GRRRRR....!*

Her stomach yelled at her even louder making her hesitantly resign to peeking out in search of an easy target; getting what she wished for when she saw a waiter bringing some jerkwad drooling over Angel's performance a plate with a large slab of meat surrounded by roasted veggies.

Ayden took on a mischievous look as she shapeshifted to hellcat form to sneak out in his direction, leaving Blitzø, Angel, and Mini A still in the dressing room, not that anybody could see them, as Angel uttered fearfully,

"Nonononono... not this day..."

"What...?!" Blitzø questioned forcefully as he watched Ayden steal the meat and retreat back to the room, starting to eat when Memory Angel came back exhausted and giving himself a pick-me-up with drugs before...-

*TCK* *KRCHT*

*TCH!* *TCH!* *TCH!*

"Mmm!" Mini A whimpered as she tightened her grip on Angel's jacket and buried her face into his shoulder when the heavy knocking sounded followed by that haunting,

"~Angeeeeel Caaakes...~"

"Shit is that...?!" Blitzø started to ask urgently before Angel answered,

"My boss... Valentino..."

He hugged Mini A closer, trying to prevent her from seeing the memory but also averting his own gaze as Blitzø watched the close call Ayden had with the Porn Overlord before being able to attack and injure him, causing him to call a manhunt on her ass.

Abruptly, the scene changed to Ayden in Angel's room, curled up in a corner of the room hitting her head and pulling on her hair before a beaten-up Memory Angel burst into the room and bolted to make her stop hurting herself when she threw her paws out and a hardened shield of fire manifested, hitting Angel with a wave of fiery energy that made him stumbled back with his hands to his face,

"What... the fuck... was that you worthless little piece of shit?!" Memory Angel muttered before he started to yell, his voice warping a bit as a reddish tinge surrounded his eyes, "You got me in trouble with Val just so I could cover your furry ass!"

"I-I di'n't m-mean-'m s-sorry-!" Ayden protested through her tears but Angel just jabbed a finger in her face as his demon form started coming out, his fur spiking up and all his eyes glowing neon magenta edged with red, as he yelled,

"Maybe I should just let'im take ya!"

Ayden took on a terrified expression as she bolted out of the apartment, Angel shaking his head free of his rage before realizing what he'd done and yelling while reaching out,

"Ruby, wait!"

Running out of the apartment after her, leaving Angel, Blitzø, and Mini A in the room as the figures started to fade and the three of them stayed in silence before Angel broke it with,

"I neva shoulda let her come with me that day..."

He put Mini A down, despite her protesting noises and grabby motions, as he spoke forlornly,

"She'd already been through enough and I just piled it on..." He gently pushed her away so he could sit against the wall away from the both of them with a hand over his face in despair, "She's betta off with you bunch, she neva shoulda found me again..."

"Mmm!" Mini A scurried over to grab and tug on Blitzø's arm with one hand while pointing back at Angel with an expression that just begged "help him!"

"Christ on a fucking stick... can't believe I'm actually doin' this..." Blitzø muttered under his breath with a hand on his face before guiding Mini A and himself to sit down next to Angel to tell him in an assured tone, "Look, I don't know you... but I know her... if she came all this way to try and explain stuff... make things right... clearly she didn't think it was your fault... maybe never did..."

"Maybe it was though..."

Blitzø scoffed ruefully before reasoning,

"Tch... She's got a mind of'er own and shit luck, if it wasn't that time it was gonna be another time.. and I'm no believer of fate or destiny shit but... maybe.." He looked off into the distance as he spoke in a slightly hopeful tone, "Maybe she needed to run away to find you again," When he saw Angel's inquisitive expression being directed his way, he backpedaled a bit while rubbing the back of his neck while looking away, "orrrr something like that..."

It was quiet for a few minutes as Angel considered his words before he settled on smiling a bit as he noted,

"Yeah... She probably woulda gotten caught in the crossfire of all me and the Hotel's bullshit if she came with me... heh..."

"Hehe..."

With soft laughs from both of them, Angel stood back up along with Blitzø before Mini A made an "uppy" motion so Angel could pick her up again and she pointed to the floor-length mirror in the room while jerking her body slightly in its direction to indicate for them to go there.

"Mmm! Mmm!"

"Is that the real way out?" Angel questioned half-joking half-serious with a raised eyebrow.

"Mmmhmm!" Mini A nodded affirmatively.

"Let's get the fuck outta here then." Blitzø spoke as he gently ruffled Mini A's hair, making her stiffen for a second before looking back at him with a tiny, barely-seen smile and they headed for the mirror, stepping through its rippling surface.

*KRCK!* *TSHH!*

The mirror shattering once they made it through.

...

3rd Person POV on the Outside

...

"Geez it's been foreveeeeeer!" Cherri complained from the bar, "How much longer are they gonna be in there?"

On the outside's end, it'd been a couple of hours since the five had been sent into Ayden's mind, with no word or response from them on their progress.

Cherri, Loona, and Jin, who managed to wake up from their knockout earlier, remained at the bar with Husk while Charlie and Vaggie had gone out to find Alastor and Lucifer since the latter had suggested their expertises might be helpful with the situation at hand, and Niffty was playing with Keekee in the living room to distract herself from compulsively wanting to clean up the rest of the spell sigil.

"However long it takes to find whatever it is that's not supposed to be in there..." Loona answered from where she was scratching Jin's head while reading the book that she'd found in Ayden's satchel, something they noticed after waking up and questioned as they bumped their head against her arm with Einar fronting as he asked,

'Did you have to look through Ayden's things...?'

"Hey phone's dead," Loona hooked a thumb at her charging phone on the other side of the bar as she deadpanned, "So I gotta find something else to kill some time..."

"Do they just sound like whoever they're connecting to?" Husk questioned, looking at Jin with a raised eyebrow as it was revealed that their tail was brushing against his hand so he could hear them too.

"No...?" Loona answered with a raised eyebrow.

"Why do they sound like me then...?"

"Don't know, don't-huh...?" Loona was about to snark back when she heard some quick footsteps coming from down the hall,

*tch...* *tch...* *tch...*

"What is it?!" Niffty bolted up and scurried up to Loona's face as she questioned, "Was it a ~buuuug?~"

"Maybe..." Loona looked out into the dark hallway before trying to appear as casual as she could as she asked, "There a bathroom I could use?"

"Upstairs, second door to the left." Husk directed her with a hint of suspicion as Loona pushed away from the bar with a quick,

"Got it."

Following her retreating form with his gaze before it landed back on Jin as they were watching her leave with worry in their eyes.

Meanwhile, Loona made it to the second floor but started sniffing the air in search of the thing she'd heard earlier, her gut telling her something was up...

*Krshhhh...* *Krsh...!* *Krshhh...*

She heard some soft scraping noises coming from one room so she quietly tried to open the door, only to find it locked.

"Tssf..! Tssf..! Hrrrr!" Loona sniffed a familiar smell on the doorknob so her hackles rose as she stepped back and rammed the door down with her foot,

*TCH!*

Before yelling angrily,

"You!"

"Well hey there cutie..." Hannah stood up from where she'd been kneeling down with a piece of red chalk in her hand as she greeted her ominously but also flirtatiously, "You're just in time for the show..."

"What show...?!" Loona growled before noticing the sigil drawn on the floor in front of her, one more rune away from being finished.

A quick mental calculation made her realize it and they were right above where Ayden and the others were on the ground floor, her face turned to realization for a quick second before she shouted determinedly,

"No ya don't Bitch! RAH!"

Before lunging and snapping at her with her fangs.

...

3rd Person POV Inside Ayden's Mind

...

"WOAH!"

"AGH!"

"OOF!"

Millie, Moxxie, and Via were all dumped into a seemingly endless space that was lit with undulating colors with nothing and no one in sight.

"Where the fuck are we now...?" Via questioned impatiently as she picked herself up from the floor.

"No ideeea..." Moxxie wheezed out from where he was under his wife before she hurried off of him to help him up with a quiet,

"Sorry Baby...!" Before looking around and mentioning worriedly, "Hope B and that other one are OK..."

*PLINK...!* *KRSH!*

They heard the sound of water dripping before shattering glass and they turned to the source to see some distortion in the air before Angel, Mini A, and Blitzø stepped out into view, coming from seemingly nowhere.

"Heeeeey!" Blitzø scooped Millie and Moxxie up in a hug that left Millie relieved and Moxxie slightly annoyed as he cheered, "There you all are!"

"'Bout time you all showed up here." Angel snarked a bit in a teasing tone before looking around as he added in a semi-serious tone, "Wherever the fuck 'here' is..."

Via looked like she was about to retort something back with her arms crossed when she caught sight of Mini A in his arms and questioned in confusion,

"Uhhh why is there a mini Ayden?"

"Cause we're all Ayden."

Everyone turned to see the four figures M&M and Via had followed;

From the two Via followed, the darker blue hooded figure pulled their hood down to reveal another version of Ayden, one more hardened looking and mistrusting in combat-style clothing, while the medium blue hooded Ayden looked more soft and trusting in a t-shirt dress with no shoes.

The Ayden Moxxie followed was wearing an oversized hoodie with the hood pulled over her head, the drawstrings pulled tightly to where only her face was barely visible over leggings and fuzzy boots as she had her hands buried in her hoodie pouch with her stance looking overall anxious and insecure.

The one Millie followed was wearing a dark sweater with matching sweatpants tucked into some combat boots and a closer look at her sweater revealed an open, bloodshot eye symbol on one side and a closed eye with a tear on the other side.

Including Mini A in Angel's arms, there were five Aydens, something the others weren't expecting to see.

"OK, correct me if I'm wrong or comin' down from a high I don't remember takin', but you all see there's five Aydens here right?" Angel questioned with some disbelief and one of his arms pointing to the group in front of them.

"Yep." Blitzø answered plainly as dark blue cloak Ayden spoke up in a drone tone,

"We''e the inner pa'ts of ou' pe'sonali'y."

"So which one of you's actually Ayden...?" Via asked, confused.

"Technically we'e all Ayden..." Medium blue cloak Ayden answered before adding, "I'm the Sense of Trust!"

"Securi'y..." Dark blue cloak introduced herself.

"...confidence..." Hoodie Ayden spoke up softly before Sweater Ayden added,

"...self-wo'th..."

"And uhh Mini A here...?" Angel asked while holding her up a bit in his arms.

"She's the sense of Innocence, definitely the most broken out of all of us." Security Ayden answered before bluntly stating, making Mini A look down sadly before burying her face back into Angel's shoulder as he put a hand over her protectively to argue,

"Aye! She ain't broken."

"None of you are!" Blitzø added before Confidence Ayden stepped forward to explain timidly,

"We don't always split up like this... but.. something happened and now.. everything is weird in here..."

After Mini A tugged to be let down to join the others, Security Ayden stepped up again as she reported,

"Somethin's been in he'e wi'h us fer a while now and we haven't b'n able ta sense it 'til recently 'fte' we all split up to focus ou' own skills."

"Not even you all know what it is that's not supposed to be in here?" Blitzø asked with a hint of doubt making her respond bluntly to his dubiousness,

"No."

"And there's only five of you in here?" Via asked, her gaze not quite on her as she bluntly answered again,

"Yes."

"Uhh then who's that...?" Via pointed away from the groups and everyone looked to see another hooded figure in the distance, their cloak dark red and billowing around them like it was caught in a breeze.

"Oh shite..." Security Ayden uttered in dread.

Out of nowhere, the empty space lit up red and crackles of energy started sparking up from the floor around them all as a hot wind started to blow through the area.

"DOUBLE SHITE! Something's goin' on on the outside!" Security Ayden shouted making everyone chorus,

"What?!"

...

3rd Person POV on the Outside (A Few Seconds Earlier)

...

*PSH!*

"AGH!" Loona grunted as she was tossed against a desk, her nose dripping some blood and she was panting from exhaustion.

"Had enough yet?" Hannah questioned cockily as she flexed her wrist around with barely a scratch on her.

"*HAK* *PTOO*" Loona hacked and spat up a bit of blood that she wiped from her mouth before hissing, "Not even close...!"

The two of them fought, Loona managing to get a few good kicks and punches here and there but Hannah, despite her appearance, managed to hold her own with swift dodges and well-placed jabs to weaken Loona's guard before roadhouse kicking her in the stomach against a wall with a loud grunt,

"HAAH!"

Loona slid slowly to the ground with a hand to her bruising ribs, trying to catch her breath as Hannah brushed her hands off before speaking in a condescending tone,

"Well this's been fun, buuuut we've got a schedule to keep soooo..."

Bringing out the red chalk again as she bent down to finish drawing the last rune, making the sigil light up in a tracing pattern and Loona yell,

"NO!"

A bright red explosion of light blinded them both to cover their eyes before a look downstairs revealed the pillar of light encircling the others as their bodies and Ayden's started hovering above the sigil on the floor going towards the sigil burning through the ceiling with Husk and Cherri looking stunned at what was happening.

...

3rd Person POV Back Inside Ayden's Mind

...

"What's happening?!" Millie cried out as she and Moxxie kept hold of each other in the harsh winds.

"Somethin' tryin' ta take ove'!" Security Ayden shouted as she went to the front of the group with all four of the other Aydens following behind as she told the others, "All of you stay back! I think I know what's goin'-AHH!"

She was cut off when she and the other Aydens were all snatched up by tendrils of red energy that trapped and lifted them all into the air as the figure from before slowly walked up to the group with their hands raised, seemingly controlling the tendrils.

Everyone focused up and stood on guard as the figure stopped a few feet away and dropped their hood, making the I.M.P. trio utter in disbelief,

"It can't be..."

"Not him...!"

"It's not possible..."

Revealing...

"Hey everyone, long time no see..." Den smirked with his gouged-out eye glowing ominously.

...

...

...

AN- Den's Back! Didja see that coming?

What a way to end 2024... with a whole, 13,000-word OC trauma dump/mindscape romp chapter! Here's to more insanity for 2025!

Some notes and references for this chapter:

The shirt Ally's wearing in the first memory is Steven's shirt from Steven Universe, the first part of the theme song is what she's humming, and Angel singing "Love Like You" from the show was a reference to "Caught in the Crossfire" I just couldn't resist throwing in here ^^The "entry rush" move was mentioned in a previous short story titled "Bullseye Bonding" and most of the memories here are all written out or mentioned in this story and "Caught in the Crossfire"Digital drawings of Ayden and Taylor's last photo together and Ayden's first transformation have already been posted to my Deviant Art account but I have more in the works like Taylor's Sinner form and Allora's appearance I hope to finish and post soon

As I've mentioned in other chapters where we've gotten peeks into Ayden's past; dealing with trauma doesn't have a universal response, so if there's any confusion on why Ayden responds a certain way to certain events or if any memories don't make sense, just comment or DM me and I'll do my best to explain and answer any questions based on personal and observed experiences with abuse...

There's one last part for this story and then I'll be finishing up Season 2 with the last three episodes and THEN... I'll finally be getting to those short story requests I've been holding off on for a while now... ^^;

I'm not sure when the last chapter'll be out since there are a few things I have to change after the events of "Sinsmas" but I'm hoping soon so that I can get to the last three episodes of Season 2, which I am very excited to write ^^

Until the next one in the New Year, Byeeee!